Pumpkin Beer: Crafting a Colonial Quaff Comeback

By: Living a Stout Life

 

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what Pumpkin Beers are made of… Not!

 

There’s a dirty little secret that many consumers aren’t aware of when it comes to all things pumpkin. Rarely, if ever, do they truly emerge from the actual flesh of a pumpkin.

 

Products such as pumpkin pudding, gelato, latte, pancake and waffle mix, cotton candy, Goldfish brand crackers, marshmallows, and more. And, yes, pumpkin beer. Quite frequently, these are pumpkin spiced goods not made from pumpkin flesh.

 

Most of you brewers that have ever made a pumpkin beer already knew that. Pumpkin can be difficult to work with, yes. But there’s more to the story than just that. And it dates back to the times of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

 

The Colonial Origins of Pumpkin Beer

The history of pumpkin beer dates back to colonization of the United States. While brewers in Europe were using malts, the colonists were not privy to such luxuries. Barley and other grains were scarce, so they turned to other fermentables.

 

Pumpkin was a hardy crop that basically grew as easily as growing weeds. They were in plentiful supply and became a staple of the colonial diet, which included beer.

 

But brewers like George Washington, the first president of the United States, didn’t brew the type of pumpkin beer that we’re familiar with as craft beer drinkers today. Pumpkin flesh was quite literally a substitute for malt, providing the fermentables, alongside other ingredients of the time, such as molasses, apples, pears, squash, and corn. Because it was so readily available and added little to the final flavor of the beer, pumpkin became a go-to ingredient.

 

Pumpkin beers were still generally hopped, but were also sometimes paired with spruce, ginger, or even ground ivy.

 

As grains and malting became available in the United States, brewers eventually shifted away from using pumpkin. Thus, pumpkin beer faded away for the better part of a century. But when craft beer started knocking on the door, so did the return of pumpkin beer.

 

Craft Beer Revives Pumpkin Beer’s Historical Roots

In the mid 1980’s Bill Owens, the founder of Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward, Calif., discovered that George Washington had brewed beer with pumpkin, so he decided to give it a go, too. He quickly concluded that pumpkin added nothing to the beer to make it enjoyable, save for the fermentables.

 

Owens realized that it wasn’t the pumpkin he was after, but instead, it was the great American taste of pumpkin pie, which derives its flavor profile from the various spices.

 

He brewed his typical amber ale and went light on the hops. He let the yeast do its magic, then infused the beer with “pumpkin pie juice” in the bright tank just before carbonation. His magic elixir was several boxes of pumpkin pie spice mix that he steeped in a coffee maker.

 

The modern pumpkin spiced beer was born! And that’s how most pumpkin beers and many other pumpkin tasting products are made today. They employ spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and allspice. These products, including beers, will sometimes use pumpkin or squash, but that is largely more for marketing than it is for adding flavor.

 

As Owens told beer writer Peter LaFrance, “There’s no way the pumpkin can add any flavor to a beer in the process. The starches in the sugars are just there, and they make alcohol, and that’s the end of that. That’s the end of the flavor profile.”

 

If you want the authenticity of adding pumpkin to your beer, no one is stopping you. But a solid base beer with an appropriate addition of spices that provide a pumpkin-pie-like flavor is what makes the pumpkin beer world go round.

 

Pumpkin Beer vs Pumpkin Spice Beer

The thoughts on pumpkin beer versus pumpkin spice beer are so divided that the Brewers Association style guidelines (not to be confused with the Beer Judge Certification Program or BJCP guidelines) separates them into two distinct categories: pumpkin/squash beer and pumpkin spice beers. Beers classified as pumpkin/squash beer should have no spices associated with them, while pumpkin spice beers would be the more common styles that utilize cinnamon, nutmeg, etc. and may or may not include pumpkin or squash.

 

What is a Traditional Craft Pumpkin Beer?

The traditional idea of a craft brewed pumpkin beer is to make it taste like you’re drinking a pumpkin pie. That’s what Bill Owens was after when he created Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale. You can go lighter or darker with the style, just as you might with an actual pumpkin pie, but tradition dictates a malty beer with a subtle amount of earthy hops topped off with a heavy dose of pumpkin pie spices.

 

There is no magical add X amount of pumpkin or squash to make it authentic. You can do so, of course, but the added effort isn’t going to add much to the flavor of the beer. Most folks are going to equate the spices to the pie.

 

If you want pumpkin in the beer, you could of course roast, slice, and dice some pumpkin, but the easier route, and probably more flavor impacting, would be to use a puree.

 

An amber or brown ale is a good base style for pumpkin beers. Each has a hefty malt backbone to stand up to the spices. An amber ale can be light enough in color to achieve an orange-ish, pumpkinlike hue to give the drinker a pumpkin visual que alongside the aroma and flavor.

 

MMC’s Munich malt is a great addition to any amber or brown ale to add depth, character, and an orange hue.

 

A strong hop flavor is generally not desired, so any good clean hop should do, such as Fuggle, Willamette, Northern Brewer, etc. It is the pumpkin pie inspired spices that should shine. They can be added to the tail end of the boil. For more control over the flavor, consider steeping the spices a la Bill Owens and adding them to taste after fermentation.

 

Examples: Of course, you have to list Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale (now rebranded as America’s Original Pumpkin Ale), but other shining examples include Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead, Dogfish Head’s Punkin, Cigar City’s Good Gourd, and New Holland’s Ichabod.

 

Putting the Crafty Jack-O-Lantern into Pumpkin Beer

There’s nothing wrong with a good, solid, traditional pumpkin ale as we mentioned above. But the word “craft” frequently comes immediately before “brewer” for a reason, right?

 

There are any number of ways to shake things up with a pumpkin beer in the craft world. You can go all-in on authenticity and brew a true pumpkin beer like George Washington or you can go to the other extreme and brew a chocolate pumpkin donut pastry imperial pastry stout.

 

You really can break all the rules and take this beer anywhere you’d like, and many brewers have. From IPAs to imperial stouts to saisons, pumpkin spice has permeated every nook and cranny of the beer world.

 

Whether to say that should happen or not, is an entirely different story.

 

Examples: Some great examples of off-the-wall crafty pumpkin options include Left Hand’s Pumpkin Spice Latte Nitro (coffee inspired), New Belgium’s Voodoo Atomic Pumpkin (with cinnamon and habanero), Prairie Artisan Ales Pumpkin Kerfuffle (imperial sour pumpkin ale), and O’Fallen’s Salted Caramel Pumpkin.